Elder Morris

about me

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Good morrow!

I will be emailing on Wednesdays from now on I guess. Haha. Whatever.

Big changes this last week. The night before transfers, President Gamiette called at 10:30 at night changing both Elder Beeson's transfers and Elder Barton's. Elder Beeson is now back in Canje, Berbice in Guyana. The same area he was trained in. Lucky! Elder Barton is now not an AP, but is now in Rosignol, Berbice in Guyana. Crazy. He is dying this transfer and his family is picking him up. Lucky they both get to go back to Guyana.

I am now with Elder Miles. He is a genius on computers, knows how to program anything, write programs, etc. He is from canada, but his family is now living in Orem, Utah. He has "plantar fasciitis" meaning his muscles on the bottom of his feet are damaged. He can walk for about 10-15 minutes at a time. I'm definitely going to miss Elder Beeson though. He helped push me a lot and we became great friends because of it. Hope i get to serve with him again. Elder Miles and I get along fine.

Things are tough with a car and a companion that can't walk around. Usually when appointments would fall through, we'd be able to walk around and contact, tract, etc. Now we can't really do that. It's a lot harder to fill your day. Driving in trinidad is absolutely crazy. Narrow roads and fast crazy drivers make for an interesting environment to say the least. I've gotten used to it now. Now the trouble will be when I get home I won't be used to driving on the right hand side of the road in nice wide streets. It will be fun. Haha. We drive a 2005 Toyota Corolla. Drives pretty good.

We're working in the office now. It's in Valsayn which is like a 15 minute drive away. We enter numbers, take care of some finances, etc. Basically take care of the background stuff that happens in the mission. Right now I'm working on the slideshow on President Gamiette's Macbook for the mission. It's pretty cool but I'd rather be walking the streets teaching.... Someone's gotta do it though. We're there from about 10:30 until 4:30 or 5. That'll be temporary until we get things organized then we can leave earlier to get more work done. I have a personal (and almost companioinship) goal to get 25 lessons a week still. That's the standard in the zone and I want to get it BAD. I want to prove to the Lord that even though I have 7 hours taken away during the day I can still get some work done. I'm excited to work. I feel strengthened spiritually to go ahead and do work!

Last night we dropped simone. That sounds bad. We basically have taught her everything and she has accepted everything, it's just now her choice on whether or not she will leave her alcoholic boyfriend and take the 2 kids, get baptized and start a happy life. The choice sounds easy but it's really driving her nuts. she said she'll continue to come to church every week though. She's way cool.

We're teaching this guy named Mussah from Nigeria. He can only speak arabic and french. Lucky for me I have a french companion. Haha. He seems way cool. Says that he feels power from the book of mormon, says that it feels like it triumphs over evil. We are teaching with President tomorrow evening to see him and invite him to baptism. He's way cool.

It was a pretty good week I guess. Lots of changes, getting used to things, but it's still good. I'll keep a good head on, endure this next transfer with joy, not with pain. It'll be tough but it is very possible.

Love,

Elder Morris

PS: I went to Grenada on Wednesday for a few hours. Haha. We took a taxi, (me Elders Christensen, Clark, and Chambers) and got some real milk from the states at a Grocery store.... YUM. Haven't had it in months. Then went back and came back to Trinidad. Very cool little trip I got to take. I'm lucky to be in this mission.. Haha

Pictures sent:Elder Beeson, Rita and I at Armina chapel after Oliva's baptism.Sunset out of our apartment windowMe in Grenada holding real milk. I know it's not a good picture! It was at night. NOt much room for good pictures.Everybody before the party on Monday. We had a family home evening/ birthday party. Haha.The Cooks. Starting from Left. Rita, Dorris, Bro. Ningwah, Sis. Ningwah. Delicious food.A West Indian Birthday. Starting from Bottom Left. Roti, The plates and napkins Mom sent, Curry Potato, Curry Beef, Curry Shrimp, then pizza and a "volcano cake" made by Sis. Ningwah. Soooo good.Me and RitaThe birthday card Rita made for me. Dorris and Rita are definitely angels. Haha

Exciting week this past week. Found out my next transfer which happens this Wednesday. I will be…..(drumroll)……. Staying in San Juan!! But. Here is the good/bad news. Bad news first. Elder Beeson will be going to St Lucia. Good news, Elder Beeson will be going to St. Lucia. He’s going to love it. I’ll miss him a lot. We’ve had a lot of fun these past 3 months. We definitely did some good tie trades though. I now have his superman tie and a couple nice ones he had. He now has a few ties I didn’t really care about so we’re good. Haha.

My new companion will be Elder Miles. He has been in Guadeloupe which is in the French side. I hear he’s a pretty nice guy though. He has a hurt foot so we will actually be office elders. Working in the office mornings and a little bit in the afternoon. We’ll have a car which will make things pretty nice. But… that means I need to work out a lot more. I do not want to gain any weight. That’s the goal. Because of his hurt foot I have to be the one to drive. Now in order to drive here you have to have been here for less than 90 days. Well I’ve been here for more than 90 days so I get to go to Grenada for a day then fly back. That’ll probably happen Tuesday or Wednesday. That’ll be way fun. Gorgeous island. Dang I love this mission. Haha.

Elder Prince is going to St. Vincent. So Elder Beeson just missed him. The AP’s are staying the same so the apartment will be pretty fun.

This past week was definitely better than the last few. Sundays always make or break the week. This Sunday was great! Amos’ sisters, his neice, and his aunt came to church. His 2 sisters will be baptized either this weekend or next. Names are Onella and Shereena. Jeremy King has been teaching them at their home for us because of it being in a dangerous community. Beetham Gardens. Oh the ghetto.

Tony and Cindy, Simone and her kids, and a couple of others that said they were coming did not come to church. Very disappointing. We might have to drop them this week.

Story time. Alright so yesterday we ate at Doris and Rita’s house, which is always phenomenal. They are angels to say the least. If you come and pick me up we will definitely go there. We were very full. Elder Beeson and Scott fell asleep just sitting on the couch after lunch. After that we went by Simone’s to check on them to see what happened. They said they had to go buy things for school tomorrow…. Goodness. So much for keeping the Sabbath day holy. Anyways we went to her brother’s house and taught them the first lesson. They didn’t understand too well but they are coming to church next week. His name is Roffman. His wife, unbeknownst to us, made us a ton of food. A big bowl full of pelau (pretty much fried rice with meat in it, has coconut in it which makes it taste very good actually.), also a baked potato with meat inside of it, and a big piece of lasagna. Remember this is about 30 minutes after we ate a huge lunch after fasting which makes you fuller anyways. I definitely prayed I would be able to eat it and somehow we ate the whole thing and didn’t feel sick at all. Thank goodness for tender mercies.

This week was just a fun week. We taught a lot of people, and just, I dunno, just had a great week. It was fun. You’re always happier at the end of the week knowing you gave all that you could. It’s like Jacob 1:19 or Omni 1:26. We gotta offer our whole souls as a sacrifice. Serve with all our heart. All our minds. It was a happy week.

I don’t really have much else to report. Mom and Dad it sounds like you guys are doing fantastic. Thanks for your great attitude which always lifts me and helps me all the time.

Much Love, Elder Morris

PS: To Emilee and her new husband. CONGRATULATIONS!!! Wish I could be there. I hear everything was great! Sorry I can't really do anything for ya so far away. Haha.

Friday, April 9, 2010

April 5, 2010

First of all, Happy Easter!

I love General Conference so dang much. This time around was so good. I only wish more members/investigators could have realized how important coming to it was. We had it at the Port of Spain chapel. The building in Curepe is rented and upstairs of the electric company. Only 2 chapels in Trinidad have the satellite. It was so great though. About 26 missionaries and 10 members were there for Saturday sessions. The majority of the members just don't have that full grasp on how important it really is. I guess they could have been watching it at home on the internet... but it was a little disappointing. Luckily on Sunday many members were there. It was a spiritual FEAST these past two days. In my notebook I was taking notes in I wrote at the bottom of Elder Andersen's talk "I do not want this to end." And what a great talk he gave. Such a themed conference, all around families and parenting. Made me very excited about the prospect of having a family of my own someday. I wish everybody would just take a break from life and watch conference every session they can. I LOVED Saturday session but barely anyone was there to see it...

The week was pretty good aside from the fantastic conference. Our investigators are doing okay. The members that were supposed to take them to conference did not so they were not there. Cindy is still meeting with the Jehovah's witnesses and each time she comes to us with a bogus question they had her ask us. She read us 1 Cor. 15:50 about how no flesh can dwell with God. Then we talked about how Christ was resurrected and how they felt his body. Uh...... Can Christ not dwell with God? Goodness. Just bogus things. Is rather frustrating. She is however reading more of the Book of Mormon which is great. Her family is doing good as well. Friday during the day they fed us a FEAST! It was delicious. They had lots of "provisions" which are things like cassava, plantain, sweet potatoes, dashin, etc. I guess it's a classic Trinidadian Easter tradition. They have fried fish and then this fish stew that we drizzled all over all the provisions. It was soooo good.

The members here seem to only like to do good missionary work every few weeks because we haven't received much help lately. We're trying to serve them, build them up through doctrine, but it's just been difficult working with them recently. They don't feel the weight that needs to be felt on their shoulders...

I can't believe you guys didn't have the Easter egg hunt with just Amy. Next year please do it and send pictures. Haha about pictures…send as many as you can!!! I'm going to buy a bigger picture album to put them in. To answer your question Dad, we never see tourists. Port of Spain does a lot but here in San Juan not as much. The Falls, which is the nicest mall here has tons of white people. Very weird to walk around there. Such a nice mall. That's where Coldstone is. By the way the gift card didn't work. Will probably send it back. Thanks for thinkin about me though!!!

I don't really know what to say, this weekend was very fulfilling and I was happy even though we didn't have much success. I love the Lord, his gospel, his Prophet today. I know without a doubt that it is true. I am so grateful for my Heavenly Father and giving us so many opportunities to grow and change. I love this work so much... :D

MUCH LOVE,

Elder Morris

Dad - It was exciting to hear about your experience this past week. I'm proud of you too!! Thank you so much for sharing that with me. I guess you'll be a 70 in no time. Just a question, I've been wondering how much do you get to study your scriptures each day? I hope you don't work too much. Saturday I learned so much and it was my favorite session. I wish you could have seen it. I love you so much Dad, thank you for your great example and all of the things you've taught me. I think you did okay as a Dad. Haha.

Things were fantastic this past week. Olivia Jones got baptized this weekend. It was a great baptism. We got about 15 members to come too which is always good. At Amos’ there was only like 5. She is doing great and will be a great addition to the Curepe ward.

We had Zone Conference this past week. Again like last time they had it at the mission home which is so cool. Our zone isn’t as unified as last time so it wasn’t as good as a conference as last time but still very very good. Learned so much. Me and Elder Beeson got called up to demonstrate teaching the first lesson and we were so dang nervous. Didn’t do as good as we have done in the past. Thrown in the refiner’s fire. Learned a lot. Also, President Gamiette’s main message to us was about the priesthood. Learned a lot of deep things about it. It was pretty intense. Very cool stuff. Dad, I’ll have to show ya when I get back.

Today was definitely one of the best p-days on my mission. The zone slept over at our apartment last night, and all 16 of us went to Maracas Beach for sunrise. Left the apt. at 4:30 AM. We got there at about 6:30 so a little late for sunrise but such a sweet time. I’m attaching a document with pictures cause that’s the only way I can send them at this shop. We played football on the beach then waded around, taking sweet pictures, just havin a blast. The rule here is that you can wade around in the water up to your knees really, but obviously no swimming. So much fun.

Amos’ sisters came to church this weekend. They’re in their 20’s and seem interested. We are teaching them the first lesson tomorrow. We’ll see how things go. Our solid investigators couldn’t come to church yesterday. We have a lot of work to do this work but we’ll get it done. Thank goodness we’re on Heavenly Father’s side.

I got the birthday package! Came on Friday haha. Got here very quickly. Thank you so much. I loved everything I got. Haha Elder Beeson's favorite candy is Airheads so when he saw those he was quick to offer a trade haha. By the way! Nice ties!!! Many people were jealous :D. Also the BYU shirt, propel water powder, the CD, you guys did too dang much! I am way lucky to have such a sweet family. Thanks! I’m excited to throw a party for myself with the stuff you sent on the 19th. Haha. Things are goin well with me though, don't worry. No complaints!

Love, Elder Morris

PS: Sounds like you guys are super busy!! Thanks for taking the time to write!